GALIJA

— First review of this album —

Not a big fan of compilations, but since it is hard to obtain copies of the first 3 Galija LP's (to my knowledge they were never released on CD), this is as close as one can get to a (official) digital copy of at least some of the tracks from those first 3 releases that were recorded during their most productive period from '79 - '82 . You get what you sort of expect from a run of the mill compilation; 3 tracks from the first; 2 from the second LP; and 2 more from the 3rd. All in all 7 tracks pulled from the first 3 LP's. The remaining 11 tracks are from the remaining 4-5 records that were markedly less successful for the band reaching into the mid to late 90's. There are a few notable omissions, mostly "Ipak verujem u sebe" the title track from their 3rd. LP or a slightly longer "Da li postoji put" (7:47), it is understandable that some of the more prog oriented tracks are omitted due to their length.

As in most cases, compilations are a mixed bag, they can't please everyone. This release is a fair introduction to someone that is not interested in having more than one Galija release, It does the job to some degree, I just wished that it leaned little heavier on the more productive, earlier years.

One of the few ex-Yugo rock bands I've heard till' today,Galija came from Nis,Serbia. Already from the early years the band suffered from several line-up changes,however they did win the first place at the Gitarijada Festival in Zajecjar in 1978.Galija started being popular after opening for the SMAK tour the same year.1979 sees the release of their debut ''Grupa Galija (Prva plovidba)''.

The album consists of seven tracks,the general style is mainly Classic Rock with some ZEPPELIN-like hard breaks and the Milosavljevic brothers responsible for the vocals,but there are also a couple of longer cuts with some diversity.The first three tracks give a good picture of the style,standard Classic-Hard Rock with boogie and early-RUSH overtones.The long yet melodic ''Posrednik'' offers nice moog synth passages by Ljubodrag Vukadinovic with a GENESIS-aura,fair amount of complexity and fantastic guitar work by Goran Ljubisavljevic,a good piece of music.With ''Madjionicar'' the band returns to the previous style,Classic Rock with good guitar and some inspired organ but no surprises at all.''Gospi'' is a melodic melancholic ballad of decent quality with the almost 10 min. ''Decimen'' closing the album.A rather nice number,not that cohesive,but again Vukadinovic performs really well on keys offering a few fantastic solos,the track is close to Symphonic Rock with even HACKETT-ish resemblances in the guitar section.

Galija could really have been a good band regarding the progressive point of view,if giving more space to keyboards or just leaving these straight rock inspirations apart.For the time,the album is rather uneven,vocals are not a highlight as well,but the two long pieces deserve more attention...2.5 stars.

The 11th studio album of GALIJA was released in 1997 under the title "Voleti voleti" ("Love to Love"). Music style continues to be developed in the adult contemporary pop rock way of the previous album, with very little prog moments. Instrumental performance is very good with crystal clear production and that is perhaps the best aspect of the album. Especially prominent is the use of electric guitars and synthesizers. However, the song writing and arrangement elements are again sub-standard and now it almost becomes GALIJA "standard".

The songs are underdeveloped; many ideas are obviously borrowed from somewhere else so you often wonder "where did I hear this song before?". Again there is a balance between soft rock ballads ("Milica") and hard rocking tracks ("Nis") but not much more remains to be discovered in between. Legacy to the folk was included in the dancelike hit "Kotor" with "world-beat" percussions and melodic bass. Slide guitar a la Ry Cooder introduces the mystic part of "Beg" ("The Escape"), but the following rhythm pattern, resembling DIRE STRAITS' "Calling Elvis", dissolves the song into banality.

Overall the best songs must be the opening "Pege" ("The Freckles") with excellent pop melody, electro-rhythm and synthesized guitar solo and "Kaća" with excellent guitar soli and vibrato effects. The rest of the album may be occasionally listened if you like the mainstream rock with nice lead guitars like Chris Rea.

PERSONAL RATING: 2,5/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5

"Good Morning, That's Me" is the first studio album of GALIJA after the 6-years break and the 13th studio album in the career of the band. Nenad and Predrag Milosavljević are back together again (lyricist and back vocalist Predrag did not participate in the last few albums), this time assisted by guest keyboardist Laza Ristovski (ex-BIJELO DUGME, SMAK) and backing vocals by K2 sisters (Aleksandra and Kristina Kovač, daughters of Kornelije Kovač, ex-INDEXI, KORNI GRUPA).

After the unsuccessful traditional folk excursion on the previous album "Juznjačka uteha", the band is back into the soft, adult-contemporary pop rock fold. Although prog elements were long time gone, this album contains several nice, atmospheric and melodic songs (with excellent use of keyboards and guitar) having a neo-symphonic, world-fusion touch, such as "Čujem te lepo kako dises" ("I Can Hear You Breathing"), "Ona je moja" ("She Belongs to Me") and "U tajnama je stvar" ("It's All About Secrets"). If you like polished, mainstream rock sound of U2, DIRE STRAITS or STING, you will probably like this album too. "Ti mozes sve" ("You Can Do Anything") was a moderate hit, which was also frequently broadcast as a video clip across the region.

"Dobro jutro to sam ja" is however an average album without any strong artistic statement. Do not expect anything more than a pleasant background music that you can play over and over again. You will not find there any hidden jewel, no matter how many times you listen.

PERSONAL RATING: 2,5/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5

I wonder who were the guys responsible for the selection of songs for this compilation album! Since several songs were edited from original tracks and over-dubbed, I suspect the GALIJA themselves (Milosavljević brothers?) had their part in this tricky business. What a mistake!

"The Eternal Sail", as the title suggests, should have been a selection of timeless classics of GALIJA, the best of the best. Unfortunately, a mere look at the selection of the albums represented casts a doubt. If the absence of songs from unessential albums "Bez naglih skokova" and "Trinaest" is largely justified, why on earth have some decent albums like "Druga plovidba" and "Karavan" been omitted? And why so many, even 10 tracks, have been taken from the so-called "Trilogy albums" (including 4 tracks from the lousy "Daleko je sunce" and 3 tracks each from "Korak do slobode" and "Istorija ti i ja"), while there was already the special compilation "Ni rat ni mir" dedicated exclusively to the Trilogy?

Another big problem is the editing of the several key prog-oriented tracks, mainly taken from the debut album and from the third "Ipak verujem u sebe". "Decimen", "Gospi" and "Jos uvek sanjam" sound slightly better in technical terms but they have been mutilated by overdubbing and re-recordings and substantially shorter than originals. "Put" is even more bastardised product including a section from "Posrednik" (excellent song from the debut, but not included here), making it a sort of an awful medley.

"Večita plovidba" finally includes a single-only track "Pravo slavlje" from 1991. The title can be read as "A True Celebration", but also as "Orthodoxy" (that is - Serbian Orthodoxy religion). Given the extreme religious-nationalist hysteria in Serbia and ex-Yugoslavia in this period, I cannot justify this kind of artists' messing up with the totalitarian mass political culture. The song is, by the way, a pathetic and pretty negligible pop ballad.

I would say "Večita plovidba" is interesting only for those GALIJA fans who would like to possess these several overdubbed old tracks as well as "Pravo slavlje" in their collection. Otherwise, the prog listeners would do better to get the first three original albums. The only possible merit of this collection is that it presents an overview (if mutilated) of GALIJA in a CD format, which may be easier and cheaper to obtain nowadays than the old vinyl LP records.

PERSONAL RATING: 1/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5

"Juznjačka uteha" ("Southern Comfort") is the twelfth studio album by GALIJA released in 1999. Although the band had already occasionally worked on folk elements on the earlier albums, this one consists entirely of the traditional covers, save the title song "Uteha". Most of the tracks are traditional folk songs from the southern Serbia and Slav Macedonia. The rich musical heritage of this region is very inspiring for many artists, and those like LEB I SOL or Vlatko Stefanovski as solo artist made even a distinguished international career.

If the selection of songs included in "Juznjačka uteha" is not disputable as such, their realisation is very much so indeed. GALIJA uses studio production in order to make accessible, radio-friendly "shopping mall music" which is very distant from rock or jazz (not to mention any experimental, alternative or "progressive" approach!). Even more disturbing is their inclination to follow the trends no matter what it is, so if the 1990s brought the mass popular interest in "re-discovering" the folk roots of the Balkan people, it was natural for Nenad Milosavljević and his company to follow suit.

Unfortunately, the majority of this type of music in ex-Yugoslavian countries is rather poor and cheap mass-consumer products (with particularly bastard phenomenon like "turbo folk" as the extreme form) which, while merging folk and pop-rock, effectively destroyed both styles. Notable exceptions, who know how to present the genuine traditional folk music in a contemporary "ethno-jazz/world-fusion" style with a true artistic skill, would include artists like Tamara Obrovac in Croatia, Damir Imamović Trio in Bosnia, Theodosii Spasov in Bulgaria or aforementioned Stefanovski. GALIJA with their "Southern Comfort" does not belong to this crew.

PERSONAL RATING: 1,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5

The tenth studio album of GALIJA is misleadingly called "Thirteen" and there are no other connections whatsoever with the album title (i.e. song name, number of tracks etc.). Unless this "13" in this case means bad luck!

It is bad luck for a listener eager to check where GALIJA was up to in 1996, because the music present on this disc is pretty dull. It's a pity because I am usually fond of acoustic pop and rock music with folksy flavour, played in an "unplugged" fashion. As the cover image suggests, the album is filled with nicely arranged and produced acoustic guitars with occasional melodic leads of fretless bass and harmonica sparks. The problem is that the song writing is bad with most of the album containing boring tracks and uninspired chords. Even the help of outside poets did not make the lyrics meaningful.

The only stand-out track is the opening "Imali smo krila" (We Had the Wings) with catchy melody and the laid-back rhythmic structure resembling the better moments of DIRE STRAITS. "Ona jos ne zna" (She Still Doesn't Know) shows that Milosavljević Bro's had invested a lot of listening to "Led Zeppelin III". Pathetic gypsy-folk moments done in a Balkanian "pub folk" ("kafanska" - a bad music indeed!) sensation just watered down already weak material.

PERSONAL RATING: 1,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5

"Caravan" is the title of the 9th studio album of GALIJA, released in 1994. It is a double-disc set containing 18 songs recorded with producer Sasa Habić at Cyprus. Sound and production is excellent, crystal-clear mainstream rock sound that is very accessible even at first listen. In the meantime, GALIJA again witnessed several personnel changes: Dragutin Jakovljević had replaced J.J. Roscam on lead guitar back in 1991, while new keyboardist and bassist, Oliver Jezdić and Bratislav Milosević respectively, were added for this album. Although Radoman Kanjevac, the main author of the previous "Trilogy" albums, was still member of the group, Predrag Milosavljević penned most of the songs on "Karavan", so the former decided to part his way upon the album release.

A double album is always a big challenge even for bands much greater than GALIJA, so it is no surprise that many of the songs here sound as fillers. To be sure, the whole album is pleasant enough to be heard repeatedly, but the music lacks originality and firm "progressive" attitude. Again, we can use a worn-out phrase saying that this could have been a very good single-disc album because there are several very nice musical ideas, particularly in the first half of the set.

"Ja sam sam" ("I'm Alone") with its jazzy bass rhythm, harmonica, atmospheric synthesizers and sustained guitar solo; a slow dark ballad "Dodirni me" ("Touch Me") with melodic chords, flute solo and radio-friendly chorus, acoustic ballad "Ja nisam odavde" ("I Don't Belong Here") performed in a Neil Young style along with harmonica; electric piano, organ and guitar blues licks in the soul-structured "Zivot je lep" ("Life Is Good") ; instrumental title track with dark, odd time signature containing folk and symphonic influences with floating keyboards (a la Tony Banks) along with the following "Narode moj" ("My People") that sounds like coming from a SIMPLE MINDS album - these songs are good enough to be recommended for general prog audience. Guest player Dragan Jovanović (ex GENERACIJA 5) contributed nicely with acoustic guitar on many of these songs.

Unfortunately the remaining material is less worthy and is uninspired Adult-Oriented-Rock. Again and again we can hear "borrowed" themes - "Ne idi" ("Don't Go") is a copy of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" by LED ZEPPELIN, while the second part of "Uzalud se trudis" ("You Try in Vain") has a section very similar to PINK FLOYD's "Hey You"! The more worrying issue is that GALIJA, despite confident authorship and vocals by Milosavljević brothers and competent instrumentalist background, was still unable to devise their own original recognisable sound and style.

In this period GALIJA was often accused by rock media and the opposition press in Serbia that they acted as the political establishment rock band, supporting the rallies of the authoritarian regime of Slobodan Milosević. Indeed, the fact they recorded "Karavan" at Cyprus throws a shadow of doubt if one recalls that in this period Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) was under international sanctions due to the war in former Yugoslav republics, and that Cyprus offered Milosević and his ruling elite the opportunity to use their banks for dubious economic and financial channels in order to break the sanctions.

Politics aside, and regarding the fact that "Karavan" does not contain any explicit political message (apart from lyrical references to the unfortunate destiny of SFRY), it must be said it is a decent, good album within the confines of mainstream, neo-prog, AOR.

PERSONAL RATING: 3/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5

The third and the final chapter of GALIJA Trilogy was titled "History You and Me". Behind this silly and meaningless title lies the best of the Trilogy albums and perhaps the best GALIJA album since 1982 "Ipak verujem u sebe".

Although on the verge of imminent break-up, SFR Yugoslavia still existed back in Spring 1991, so the producer was a renowned Bosnian musician Niksa Bratos, the album was recorded in Montenegro's capital Podgorica (then still known as "Titograd"), while the mixing was done in Zagreb, Croatia. Notable guest appearances included Bora Dugić on traditional flute called "frula", former member Sasa Lokner on keyboards, bass player Slavisa Pavlović and the members of the mediaeval music ensemble RENESANS.

The album is generally more acoustic and folk oriented than its predecessors. "Trava" (Grass) brings an easy and pleasant acoustic guitars intro, accompanied by symphonic Gaelic-sounding keyboards and nice woodwinds (frula). The following "Proleće" (Springtime) starts with acoustic strings resembling "saz" or "sargija", with chorus nicely developed in a pop-rock fashion. Rhythm structure is obviously influenced by then trendy U2-like arrangements, which in this case is a compliment. "Trube" (Trumpets) is a piano-led ballad that made a great hit. Melody, although a bit cheesy, is very nice and with catchy chorus containing excellent harmony vocals. There are some great and effective guitar licks from Roscam too. GALIJA always mixed some blues/hard rocking tracks in earlier records, but "Pod noktima" (Under the Nails) may fool you into believing this is a ZZ TOP track! Typical boogie guitar riff accompanied with mouth harp makes transition to more R'n'B structured chorus perfect for dance clubs.

"Skadarska" contains lyrical lament over the sad destiny of once united country, but now at the threshold of the violent conflict. It is mainstream pop-rock tune but without too much pathetic. Acoustic guitar and flute brings it close to a folk- rock style, while the lines "I can't understand the division in a Balkanian way" sound more sincere than banal. "Posle vatre" (After the Fire) is the best moment on the album and this song is a perfect prog folk. Acoustic string instruments and woodwinds of RENESANS make it close to the more elaborated moments of PENTANGLE or AMAZING BLONDEL while excellent but short electric lead guitar touches even JETHRO TULL acrobatics. Had the band continued in this fashion through the end of the record this LP could have been a very good, even excellent one. Unfortunately, GALIJA did not have enough strength to wrap up this work in a more authentic and progressive way. Remaining tracks are weak and negligible despite excellent Roscam's slide guitar in "Seti se maja" (Remember the May).

Upon this album's release GALIJA played supporting Bob Dylan's concert in June 1991 at Zemun, while Jean-Jacques Roscam left the band before the war broke out in summer that year. "Istorija ti i ja" is a fairly good album with excellent production and arrangements although not all compositions are top quality. It is still recommended as occasional listen while taking break from the more demanding and sometimes stressful progressive rock.

PERSONAL RATING: 3,5/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5

Volume II of the trilogy of albums penned by R. Kanjevac, under the title "One Step to Liberty", starts promising, especially when compared with the previous, absolutely disastrous deed "Daleko je sunce".

"Noć" (The Night) and "Na tvojim usnama" (On Your Lips) are decent pop-rock tunes - the former invoking U2 "With or Without You" in keyboard arrangement and the latter containing nice flute and acoustic folksy strings (tambouritza?) - while the title track is a hard rocking blues with excellent Roscam's slide guitar. Unfortunately, the remainder of the album is rather weak so only "Sloboda" (Liberty) with guest vocals by Goran Sepa (ex-KERBER, a hair metal band, fellow-townsmen of Nis) and "Pevaju jutra" (The Singing Mornings) with strong bass rhythm are sort of listenable.

The composing credits on this album were shared among Nenad Milosavljević, Bratislav Zlatković and Jean-Jacques Roscam, but they could hardly be proud of what they did. Roscam's Afro-reggae "Ljubavna pesma" (The Love Song) which sings about "love" between different races and nations is particularly horrible! Apart from the mentioned U2 "inspiration", they were obviously influenced also by the worst of BIJELO DUGME in "Kopaonik" and by enormously popular DIRE STRAITS' "Brothers in Arms" whose tune is largely copied into "Kad me pogledas" (When You Look At Me), along with a Dobro-sounding acoustic guitar. Zlatković's two short instrumentals "Uvodna" (Intro) and "Zavrsna" (Outro) wrap up the album nicely although not many gems are present in between.

All of this can reaffirm GALIJA's strong position among the most obvious plagiarists at the Yugoslav rock scene, next to BIJELO DUGME and PRLJAVO KAZALISTE. And it goes back to their debut and intake of CAMEL's "Mystic Queen".

Still, "Korak do slobode" is somewhat better than its predecessor, while production and performance are good. Hence 2 stars.

PERSONAL RATING: 1,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5